Lessons any brands or business on Twitter can learn from Xbox

As a trainer and consultant in social media – I’m always looking for case studies and best practice to share.

Even though I’ve never entered the ‘gaming’ world personally – I certainly think they know a thing or two about developing and engaging communities.

Their products enable you to be ‘social online’ and virtually ‘play’ with likeminded friends or complete strangers (new competitors) who all share the same interest and enthusiasm for gaming.

Beyond the actual social element within the product – then there’s of course the ‘social’ media networks which many of their target audience are aligned with.

So take a look at Xbox on Twitter – and consider some lessons we can all learn:

A Targeted Approach –

• Rather than one global Xbox account – they have recognized that their ‘followers’ have different needs.  You’ll see that rather than have one corporate account and push all messages via it – due to the size of the audience they’ve segmented their accounts on Twitter to serve specific needs.  Their main Xbox account  promotes their product – features of the product, competitions they are running, partnerships they have in place and any latest news.  Exactly what you would expect from a corporate account.
• Service, service, service.  Xbox has a dedicated Xbox Support Twitter Account – take a look at this profile and you will see that they rightly boast about holding the Guinness World Record for ‘most responsive brand on Twitter’.

Also, you’ll see a list of the team who make up their support team – so as a customer, you can see who you are talking to at any one time.

Take a look at their conversations in this thread and you’ll see high levels of engagement, responsiveness, relevant promos and competitions.

My guess is that their service / support levels have potentially become far more efficient and easier to manage via opening up the support service via Twitter.  Support is now visible to all their followers – and so they have to be great at it – and great service and visible praise from your audience adds momentum to continuously improve your service levels.   Also, Support is now one to many instead of one to one – whilst still retaining a personal positioning.  If a number of their customers have the same issue – one global message can communicate to many that they are working on the issue and keeping people informed of progress.

In my view, Xbox offer all of us something to learn on how to engage a community and continue to service a community via Twitter which focuses on key facets that are relevant to any business.  Simple marketing really – 1) know your audience and segment content / engagement accordingly  and deliver the content and messaging you know your audience want to engage with – and 2) deliver excellent service to grow advocacy and nurture retention and brand loyalty.

Do let us know your thoughts and opinions on this topic – share your comments below or simply tweet us at @carvillcreative.

This blog post was brought to you by Michelle Carvill, founder of Carvill Creative, the online visibility experts and author of The Business of Being Social – A Practical Guide to Harnessing the Power of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn for all Businesses.

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